316 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



279. CEYX BOURNSI Steere. 

 BOURNS'S KINGFISHER. 



Ceyx bounisi Steere. List Birds & Mams. Steere Exped. (.July, 1890), 10: 

 Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 17, 185; Hand-List (1900), 

 2, 53; BorRNS and Worcester, :Minnesota Acad. Nat. Sci. Occ. Papers 

 (1894), 1, 47; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 53. 



Ceyx malamaui Steere, List Birds & Mams. Steere Exped. (1890). 10; 

 Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1892), 17, 184. 



Ceyx siilvcnsis Blasius, Jour, fiir Orn. (August, 1890), 14 L 



Ceyx marfiurethce Blasius, Jour, fiir Orn. (August, 1890), 14L 



Banton (Celestino) ; Basilan (Steere Exp., Bourns d Worcester, McGregor); 

 Bongao (Everett); Cebu (Bourns c£- Worcester, McGregor); Mindanao (Steere 

 Exp., Platen, Bourns d Worcester) ; Negros (Bourns d Wo7-cester) ; Romblon 

 (Bourns d Worcester) ; Sibuyan (Bourns d Worcester, McGregor) ; Siquijor 

 (Bourns d Worcester) ; Sulu (Platen, Bourns d Worcester); Tablas (Bourns 

 d Worcester) ; Tawi Tawi (Bourns d Worcester, Everett). 



Adult {sea-es similar). — Above, sides of head and neck, and wings ultra- 

 marine to silvery cobalt-blue; having a more or less spotted appearance 

 on head ; lores and under parts orange-rufous, but chin, throat, and middle 

 of abdomen white or with a pale yellow wash ; alula, primaries, and pri- 

 mary-coverts black; edge of wing and outer web of first alula-quill and 

 of first primary rufous; tail blue, darker than back and coverts. In a 

 male from Banton the wing is G8; tail, 26; culmen from base, 39; 

 tarsus, 10. 



"Young. — Similar to the adult, but less brilliant and with a duller 

 red bill; the head, scapulars, and wing-coverts black, with blue ends to 

 the feathers; the blue of the back lighter than in the adult, and inclining 

 to cobalt on the lower, back; loral spot as large as in the adult.'' 

 (Shm-pe.) 



This species exists under a number of plumages some of which have 

 been described as separate species. Bourns and Worcester have collected 

 a great number of specimens which show tliat these variations can not be 

 specific. In part they say : 



"We find that we must either multiply the number of small blue 

 woods Ceyces from the Philippines indefinitely or reduce the above-men- 

 tioned species [C. hournsi, malamaui, suluensis, and margaretho'] to one. 

 It would be an almost endless task to describe the different phases of 

 plumage shown and we will only say that we have a practically unbroken 

 series between a bird with a magnificent deep blue upper surface and a 

 bird with a fine silvery white upper surface which has not a blue feather 

 on it. In the latter specimens the white occupies exactly the position of 

 the blue in the specimens first mentioned. 



"Our series shows that these extraordinarv differences of color are 



